


just to break me like a promise

by nereid



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Genre: Adultery, F/M, hera perhaps is not a better wife, zeus is a terrible husband
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-02 15:42:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19444498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nereid/pseuds/nereid
Summary: all her white robes are the same, satin and stardust, gifts from the god of gods.title from taylor swift.





	just to break me like a promise

Hera wakes up alone. The right side of the bed is cold. (Zeus has left.) (Zeus will leave.)

Hera gets up and dons a white robe. It is her favorite. All her white robes are the same, satin and stardust, gifts from the god of gods. But he gave her this one yesterday, after she had warned him that she knew about Leda. Zeus did not even know about Leda. Zeus knows about Leda now, has already decided to make himself into a swan for her, and Hera's bed is cold.

In two days, Zeus will come back around dawn and the stairs will creek under him because their house is as old and tired and treacherous as they are, and the marble floor will not yield under him because it is as young and limber and cold as they are. He will bring Hera a white robe, satin and stardust, and this one will be her favorite.

Hera will take lovers, too, and this is why Zeus hates her. Zeus has taken lovers before and Hera will have hated him for it by tomorrow. She does not hate him now, because her bed is cold. She will say to him that she ought to kill him and she will remember strangling him, ichor pulsing under her skin. She will strangle him in two moons. She strangled him, suns ago. He will laugh at her, and die, and come back to their bed alive, not always in that order. He brought her a white robe and she will put her hands to his neck and he will not turn himself into a swan for her. The right side of Hera's bed - well, you know.

He comes back and dies. He laughs in the morning on the right side of the bed which is always cold.


End file.
